Chapter 173: Speculation on a Cancer Cell Chakra Autonomous Extraction Device
After sustaining the conversion device for fifteen minutes, the Nara genin was nearly drained dry. Kenichi signaled for Zero Tails to stop.
"It looks like, at the current pace, a genin's chakra is enough to keep flight going for a while." Kenichi stared at the notes in his hand, running numbers in his head. "If we want longer flight time and higher altitude, then that means…"
He did not finish the sentence out loud, but the conclusion was obvious.
An ordinary person could not withstand the extraction at all. If ordinary people were used as fuel, then they would have to capture and imprison a large number of them just to maintain flight.
The problem was, ordinary people got their stamina drained almost instantly, while one ninja could match many ordinary people on sheer output. In most cases, using captured shinobi as "batteries" was simply the most efficient option.
If they could capture chunin or jonin, then the supply of chakra would increase drastically, and the kinetic energy they could generate would follow.
The only real question now was how much chakra Zero Tails could extract and convert at one time.
With that in mind, Kenichi had Shiori escort the Nara genin and the ordinary man back. He went with her, retrieved the chunin and the jonin from the lab, and prepared to test them as well.
Even among jonin, not everyone had several times more chakra than a genin. But at the very least, a jonin's chakra quality was better. Kenichi wanted to see how much Zero Tails could extract and convert from that level.
After that, they would test how much buoyancy the conversion capability could generate, and then determine whether the laboratory could truly be built in the air.
Compared to the Nara genin, who had relatively few restraints, these two Konoha shinobi were in far worse condition. The Konoha jonin had it especially bad. His collarbone had been pierced, and his chakra had been sealed with a specialized technique.
Kenichi did not waste words.
He removed the seal, then immediately applied a different one to prevent the jonin from mobilizing chakra on his own.
Then he instructed Zero Tails to begin extracting.
By this point, they were no longer inside the lab. Flight tests could not be done indoors, and the conversion device itself was large enough that assembling it inside the lab was a pain.
"Compared to that genin…" Kenichi murmured, sensing the chakra being pulled from the jonin's body. "The extraction is slower."
The rate really was slower. Kenichi could feel the chakra loss clearly, but it did not rip out in a violent rush like it had with the genin.
The tradeoff was worth it.
The device shot out of the forest and surged into the sky at a frightening speed. Kenichi immediately told Koji to bring it down.
So it worked.
Zero Tails could achieve flight by extracting a jonin's chakra, and the conversion device was effective. By Kenichi's rough calculations, this jonin alone could provide a tremendous amount of energy to sustain flight.
But that was only the weight of a single conversion device.
What happened when they added the actual "base" on top?
With that in mind, Kenichi brought Zero Tails and Shiori to his laboratory and began hauling out the stones he had excavated for construction. He loaded a full ton of stones onto the conversion device first.
It lifted again.
It flew again.
And the speed did not drop.
Kenichi finally felt a bit of relief.
"Sasori," he called out, "come help. Let's see how long this thing can stay up."
After a simple but thorough test, Kenichi confirmed the result.
That Konoha jonin could support twenty tons, reach an altitude of five hundred meters, and maintain flight for one and a half hours before he could no longer continue.
By the end, the jonin was completely exhausted, close to death.
Chakra could be refined, but it was not infinite. For a ninja, running out of chakra meant death was basically guaranteed.
At first, Kenichi did not understand why it was so absolute. Later, he learned the reason.
To a certain extent, the physical strength of shinobi was built on chakra itself. Chakra reinforced their bodies, enhanced their functions, and pushed them beyond what ordinary people could endure.
Because of that, a shinobi could not truly live without chakra. If all the chakra in their body was consumed, the heart would no longer be able to pump blood throughout the body properly.
Death would not be far behind.
"So, Kenichi," Sasori asked while studying the device, "what do you think we should do about this?"
Sasori was included in everything now. He had seen Ancor before, so there was no need to hide anything from him.
"No rush." Kenichi waved a hand. "First, we find the maximum amount of chakra Zero Tails can extract right now."
A jonin worked, but they still did not know the upper limit of Zero Tails extraction capacity.
Kenichi glanced around at the others, then decided to step in personally.
To be honest, his chakra reserves could only be described as absurd. He almost never ran dry.
Hashirama's cells really were an unreasonable kind of foundation.
Once Kenichi gave permission, Zero Tails became visibly excited. In the next instant, Kenichi felt a foreign force attempt to pull at his chakra.
"What if I refuse?" Kenichi tested it out.
Nothing happened.
It could not extract even a thread.
"Waaah!" Zero Tails twisted anxiously, wriggling left and right like a panicked pet. If it did not look like a snake, it might have passed for a nervous dog.
Kenichi exhaled quietly.
So as long as he did not consent, Zero Tails could not take chakra from him.
Then he relented, and even actively poured his chakra into Zero Tails.
The conversion device, still carrying twenty tons of stone, took off like it had been kicked into the sky. It climbed rapidly, soaring to more than a thousand meters above the ground.
Then Kenichi noticed something else.
Zero Tails was starting to lose its own chakra.
It even reduced the extraction frequency.
Before, it had been pulling an amount comparable to a Chidori from Kenichi every second.
Now, it was only pulling the equivalent of one Great Fireball every five seconds.
"Kenichi, how do you feel?" Sasori asked, watching him closely. He had seen the jonin's miserable state earlier.
"I'm fine." Kenichi wrote down the data carefully. "And I've roughly estimated the current extraction limit. It's probably around the level of two jonin."
Kenichi could serve as a "battery" too, but that approach was a headache.
Was he supposed to keep a shadow clone parked here forever?
And if they ran into a powerful enemy, he might have to dismiss the clone to reclaim chakra immediately.
If the airborne base collapsed the instant the clone disappeared, that would be beyond ridiculous.
The thought alone made his stomach ache.
All the expensive instruments, delicate equipment, and precious research data inside that base would be destroyed in an instant.
Even now, he did not have many projects that took years of effort, but if he lost the mutant seed of Sample 23, he would still go insane.
For a researcher, equipment and data could be more precious than life.
So they needed a real solution to the energy problem.
After returning to the ground, Kenichi instructed Koji to see whether the conversion device could be improved further.
He reminded Shiori again to take proper care of Hidan.
Then he left with Sasori in a hurry.
The aerial test base seemed feasible for now, but there were still too many problems waiting to be solved. And Kenichi was already buried in his own research. He could not afford to get stuck here.
Fortunately, he had shadow clones.
He could push multiple directions at once. If he could not use clones, he would probably still be stuck obsessing over rice yields.
"Kenichi," Sasori said while walking, "should I go capture a few jonin? If we rotate them and extract their chakra in turns, that should be enough."
Sasori had plenty of experience capturing people. For him, it was almost casual.
"No." Kenichi shook his head. "Jonin have too many tricks."
Humans were the most troublesome creatures. They had too many thoughts, too many hidden options, too many ways to sabotage things when cornered.
If something went wrong, the losses would be enormous.
What they needed was something like a true generator. A battery. Something that only produced chakra.
Something that was purely chakra production, and nothing else.
Kenichi froze mid step.
Then his eyes lit up.
"Computers can be programmed," he muttered, voice rising with sudden excitement. "So can a body be programmed? What if I…"
His mind snapped back to his earliest research results.
Cancer cells.
Those things could proliferate almost endlessly as long as they had enough nutrition. Powerful reproductive capacity, no real intelligence, nothing but a mass of cells multiplying according to a brutal, simple rule.
If cancer cells could be "programmed" to refine chakra on their own, producing a steady supply for Zero Tails…
Then this would be creating a super tool.
No, a tool cell.
Something that never understood hardship or rest, working every day without pause to refine chakra.
Of course, having the idea and making it real were two different worlds.
Cancer cells could proliferate indefinitely, but teaching a lump of flesh how to refine chakra was not a simple matter.
Still, if it could actually be done, then the advantages were overwhelming.
Unless cancer cells somehow evolved intelligence, they would remain a mindless mass. A lump of flesh following a fixed program.
With that thought burning in his head, Kenichi created several shadow clones to begin investigating whether the idea was feasible.
Meanwhile, Sasori turned his attention to researching how to move Kenichi's laboratory itself. If relocation was impossible, then rebuilding it from scratch might be the only option.
Back at the lab, Kenichi approached two Uchiha shinobi and smiled.
"How was your rest?"
The moment they heard his voice, both of them trembled and lowered their heads.
They had tried to fight back before.
They could not even beat the shadow clones.
Kenichi's smile widened slightly.
It was time to begin studying the three tomoe.
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